Admission requirements
N.A.
Description
This course focuses on fundamental questions about the relationship between music history and memory culture. We will examine how music historiography is conducted, how it generates meaning, and how it evaluates different kinds of musical cultures in order to understand why particular composers, performers, musical works, genres and styles are remembered today whilst others are forgotten. My aim is to elaborate the underlying mechanisms and processes in the construction of historical narratives that are responsible for a sustainable contribution of meaning to a particular event, agent, and cultural artefact. By doing so, I will argue that music is not only important to create an individual and personal identity, but also to produce, maintain, and adapt a society’s collective identity. Moreover, it is an empowering tool for marginalized communities to make their voices heard. Serving as a theoretical framework, I will adapt the concept of “lieux de mémoire” by French historian Pierre Nora for the analysis of music-related sites and places of memory that span from the end of the 18th century to our present time. After having revisited Nora’s texts and other related theories on cultural memory and heritage, we will examine the following sites of memory: Beethoven’s ninth symphony, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, monuments for Mozart in Graz, the genre hip-hop, Scharoun’s philharmonic concert hall and Libeskind’s Jewish Museum in Berlin.
Course objectives
General learning objectives
The student can:
- organise and use relatively large amounts of information
- reflect critically on knowledge and understanding as presented in academic literature
Learning objectives, pertaining to the specialisation
- The student has knowledge of a specialisation, more specifically in the specialisation General History the place of European history from 1500 in a worldwide perspective; with a focus on the development and role of political institutions.
Learning objectives, pertaining to this specific lecture course
The student:
4. gains knowledge about the role of music in the formation of cultural identities from the end of the 18th century until today.
5. understands the concepts of historiography, cultural memory, and collective identities.
6. learns about how music history is influenced by institutional, political, and economic powers.
7. acquires the skill of critically reflecting on the relation between general history and music history.
Timetable
The timetables are avalable through MyTimetable.
Mode of instruction
- Lecture
Assessment method
Assessment
Assignment: five short assignments throughout the semester, containing one short essay question each
measured learning objectives: 1-3, 4, 6Final examination: written examination with short open questions and essay questions
measured learning objectives: 1-3, 4-7
Weighing
Assignment: 50 % (10 % per assignment)
Final examination: 50 %
The final grade for the course is established by determining the weighted average.
Resit
The resit exam will only pertain to the final examination. For the short assignments there will be a regular due date and a late hand-in date.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organised.
Reading list
For those who can read German, this reading can be browsed beforehand, but it is NOT a requirement:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110767483 (Saskia Jaszoltowski, Erinnerungsorte in der Musik. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter 2022).More readings will be made available through Brightspace.
Registration
Enrolment through My Studymap is mandatory.
Registration Studeren à la carte en Contractonderwijs
Registration Studeren à la carte.
Registration Contractonderwijs.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Huizinga.
Remarks
NA